INEC threatens to cancel crisis-ridden polling units in Kogi
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has threatened to cancel election results of crisis-ridden areas during the presidential and NASS election in Kogi.
Dr Hale Longpet, Kogi Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), sounded the warning while reacting to the crises that erupted in some Local Government Areas while Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lokoja.
There were reports of thugs interfering with some polling units in Anyigba and Dekina in the Kogi East and Mopa in the Kogi West as well as parts of Kogi Central, where voting materials were allegedly carted away by thugs.
“You know the electoral Law says that where there is a disruption to the process, the result will be cancelled, the very particular units’ results will be cancelled.
“The issues initially were only in the Kogi East and Central but I can’t tell exactly where and where in the state have been affected until the results are brought by the electoral officers.
“We understood that because of the violence, those affected areas couldn’t conclude election there.
“I’m shocked that people can go to that level and disrupt something that everybody should have enjoyed.
“Election is a peaceful and willful thing that people are offered to freely participate.
“Again, If people are given assurance that everyone will enjoy a pleasant experience, why then should we have thugs invading the whole town or the local government, disrupting the conduct of the elections?” he asked.
Longpet said, “This is very sad and shocking, when you look at the loss of lives involved.”
He explained that “election is not war,” so If you were standing in for election to provide services for your people, you don’t need to engage in these destructive activities.
In related development, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for Bassa/Dekina Federal Constituency in Kogi East also called for total cancellation in the region following the irregularities that marred the process.
In a petition addressed to the INEC Returning Officer for Dekina LGA, the PDP candidate said; “the entire process from the beginning was marred by insecurity, violence, and snatching and destruction of electoral materials, maiming and killing of PDP members and stuffing of ballot boxes in some polling units.
“The high point of this paper, therefore, is to formally bring to the notice of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Nigeria Police Force, the Directorate of State Security (DSS), the Nigeria Defence Corps (NCDC), and other security agencies and to make public the Presidential and National Assembly Election did not hold in Anyigba ward due to the activities of the APC.
“Consequent upon the foregoing and the above captioned, we call for the cancellation of the Presidential and National Assembly election in Anyigba.”
(ThisDay)
